MP Govt’s Cabinet Approves DPRs for Bhopal & Indore Metros
The Madhya Pradesh government’s cabinet on December 27 approved the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for the first phase of both Bhopal and Indore’s metro projects which are estimated to cumulatively cost Rs. 14,485.55 crore. The DPR and master plan for both projects were prepared by ‘Rohit Associates Architects & Engineers’ and from that, Line-2 and Line-5 in Bhopal and Line-3 in Indore will be executed in Phase 1 by the Madhya Pradesh Metro Rail Company (see their website) which was constituted in February 2015.
Bhopal Metro – Phase 1
Line 2 – Karond Square to AIIMS – 14.99 km
Stations: Karond Square, Bhopal Talkies, Railway Station, Bharat Talkies, Bogda Pul, Shubhash Nagar underpass, DB Mall, Board Office Square, Habibgang Naka, Alkapuri Bus Stand and AIIMS
Line 5 – Bhadbhada to Ratnagiri Tiraha – 12.88 km
Stations: Depot Square, Jawahar Chowk, Roshanpura Square, Minto Hall, Lily Talkies, Jinsi Depot, Bogda Pul, Prabhat Square, Apsara Talkies, Govind Industries Area, J.K.Road and Ratnagiri Tiraha
Bhopal Metro Master Plan – view full map (PDF)
Indore Metro – Phase 1
Line 3 – Rajwada to Nainod – 31.55 km (circular line)
Stations: Rajwada Palace, Indore Railway Station, High Court, Palasia Square, Patrakar Colony, Bengali Square, Mumtaj Bag, Radison Square, Vijay Nagar Square, Meghoot Garden, Bapat Square, Hira Nagar, Chandragupta Square, ISBT, MR 10 Road, Bhawarsala Square, Super Corridor 1, Super Corridor 2,Super Corridor 3, Super Corridor 4, Super Corridor 5, Super Corridor 6, Nanod, Airport, BSF, Kalani Nagar, Ramchandra Nagar Square, Bada Ganpati and Maulana Azad Marg
Indore Metro Master Plan – view full map (PDF)
To fund the projects’ construction, the Madhya Pradesh government intends to borrow 60% of the required funds from lending agencies, but so far has not been successful in doing so. Japan’s JICA initially showed interest, but backed-out over understandable financial viability concerns. Since then, the government has approached the Asian Development Bank and other European agencies, but has not been assured any funds.
In May 2016, the MPMRCL invited Request for Qualification (RFQ) and Request for Proposal (RFP) bids from technical services companies for the General Consultant contract. Following each pre-bid meeting, the last date for submitting bids has been extended multiple times to allow the bidders more time to submit their proposals. The current last date, as it stands today, is 15 February 2017.
The DPR will now be sent to the union government for its cabinet’s approval. Overall, financial viability remains a big concern and without any assured external funding, I do not expect bids for civil construction to be invited anytime soon.
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– TMRG
Good news for both the cities. But these two cities have a functioning BRTS network (not well functioning, just functioning), which is also being expanded. Any word on what will happen to that? will it function as a complementary/feeder system or anything else?
No word on the BRTS – they continue to expand it though. Some BRTS lines have dedicated lanes, but some do not. It’ll be interesting to see what they do where the alignments run in parallel.
Hii
Hats off to the planning authority. this is a perfect example of how metros should be interconnected.with a single interchange one can reach to any part of the city.